HYDERABAD: Hyderabad’s “High street” stretching from Jubilee Hill check post to Cyber Towers has virtually turned into a large swimming pool after the area received over 12cms of rain on Wednesday morning.
Various stretches of the 5km ‘model street’, also known as Road No. 36 that was developed recently with swanky new footpaths, swelled up with rainwater not draining out from the existing “old drains”.
The worst affected area being the junction in front of Neerus Store where the water flow had a swift current posing danger to the commuters. The street which was taken up by HMRL has brand new vents built alongside the wide footpaths, however they proved insufficient to take in the water after heavy spells of rain.
“The vent size is small and so absorption is lower. The drains are also relatively old,” informed an official from GHMC.
This was not all, the entire Serilingampally area which received the highest amount of rainfall across the city in last 24 hours was the worst impacted with at least 10 major locations remaining water logged throughout the morning. These areas were inundated with two to three feet high water for about four hours. Roads from Radisson Blu to DLF were some of the worst affected with roads flooded until 2.00 p.m., five hours after the spell. “Radisson-DLF road was blocked owing to a virtual swimming pool formed in front of True Value showroom this morning. Please avoid the road,” tweeted a commuter.
The traffic police and the GHMC disaster relief force were pressed into service from the early hours and they tried to divert the excess water collected with the use of cranes and manual pumps. “Wherever possible we have been using cranes to create channels in the mud to release the stagnated water. The slanting terrains have also added to the problem,” said ACP Jayaram, Traffic Police, Madhapur.
“Apart from a few, all the inundation points this year are not the traditional ones indicating the problem may have started after some nala diversions were undertaken by private builders or choking of drains,” said Zonal Commissioner Harichandana Dasari.